We examine the relation between patent thickets and acquisitions. Patent thickets are dense webs of overlapping … litigation. We find that firms are less likely to be acquired when they are in a denser thicket comprised of many patent owners … it can have these costs imposed on it by the acquirer. Importantly, our results are not explained by patent count, patent …

acquired company. If inventors would respond with a decline of their patent productivity or departure from the firm this can be … paper provides empirical evidence on post-merger mobility and productivity of 673 inventors employed by European acquisition … with the merged entity; 2.) inventors that left the acquired firm are less productive in post-merger years than those that …

to corporate investors, especially if these are closely related to the patent portfolio of the acquirer. …